Hetalia Tales 3:5 : The Piano and the Frying Pan
by pastaaddict
Summary: Six years before Hetalia Tales 3:Cinderella. Elizaveta of the Héderváry Tribe flies past a window, hears someone playing the piano and stops to listen. How Hungarian Fae, Elizaveta and future Grand Duke, Roderich met!


**Only just finished writing this which is why I posted it so late in the day but here you go!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya!**

 _ **Hetalia Tales 3:5 : The Piano and The Frying Pan**_

 _Six years before Cinderella and three years before Sleeping Beauty ..._

Prince Gilbert Beilschmidt of Prussia and Roderich Edelstein, the son of The Grand Duke of Austria had practically grown up together and it amazed everybody how two such different boys could possibly be friends. The wild Prussian royal with his white hair and red eyes and the dark hair, violet-eyed composed Austrian noble were like night and day but they meshed. Oh, they argued, sometimes argued like enemies but they always made up.

When they hit their eighteen birthdays, it began. Both Gilbert's stepfather, King Wolfgang of Germania, and Roderich's father began putting the pressure on the two boys to find a spouse. Gilbert, naturally, resisted this edict but Roderich's father had a reason to push him toward matrimony. He was sick and unlikely to get better and Roderich, the ever dutiful son, began looking at possibilities.

There were many noble ladies (and gentlemen) who would have fit the bill as far as position went but there was always something lacking. There was no connection but even his father could not say he was not trying. He gave each candidate a chance and some were nice but nice was safe and safe was _boring!_

Roderich sighed as he sat by his piano after his latest possibility had left. Nice girl but he was bored after ten minutes. Another chance out of the window.

At first, he idly hit the keys in simple tunes then he began playing with both hands and soon lost himself in the music. Beethoven and Mozart became his only companions as the musical compositions lifted him above his problems.

The music could be heard outside the music room window as someone was passing and it peaked their interest.

* * *

Elizaveta of the Héderváry Tribe was loyal to the kingdom she hailed from but she was glad to have left Hungary for Prussia. She did not like to leave her god-daughter alone with The Hag and her spawn for too long. If only she could have someone here to watch over Katyusha when she could not be there but there was no one she could trust with such a responsibility.

In miniature form, she flew over the Royal Palace in the Prussian city of Königsberg, idly wondering what the eighteen year old royal pain in the …... was up to these days. On the few occasions that she met him she had to admit he kept things interesting.

As she flew past one of the windows, the sound of someone playing the piano reached her ears and drew her curiosity as to it was. As she recalled, Gil could not be made to stay at the piano when he was younger if he was chained to it. In fact the only one Elizaveta could remember applying themselves to learning the piano was little Roderich Edelstein, the Grand Duke of Austria's son, but she had not seen him since he was eight. He had never seen her!

She flew to the window and looked in to see a young man of about eighteen, sat at the piano, engrossed in playing and lost in the music. Elizaveta stared at the young man as his fingers ran over the keys. The dark hair with that funny piece that stuck up, curling over his head and that mole on his chin and those gorgeous violet eyes. He was taller and he wore glasses now but Elizaveta never thought that Roderich would grow up to be so _cute!_

She waved her wand and the window opened silently, just enough for her to slip through and she flew in and sat on back of a chair stood behind Roderich and listened as he wove a musical world around them both, unaware of his audience.

* * *

Roderich could hear nothing but the music and feel nothing but the keys under his fingers which he played with the expertise he had been taught with and he felt all his troubles being driven away by the melody. He was flying on the tune when …..

"There you are, Bro-ha!" Gilbert burst into the room and brought Roderich back down to Earth. He turned to look at Gilbert with a long-suffering sigh. He just knew that Gilbert was about to suggest something that would land them both in trouble but when he turned, he saw the young prince holding something carefully in his hands. Something yellow and covered in feathers.

"What have you got there?" Roderich asked, staring at the ball of fluff. The fluff ball shook its feathers and cheeped.

"My new pet!" Gilbert declared, proudly. "I'm going to call him Gilbird!"

"Very original!" Roderich dead-panned but most of Gilbert's attention was on the little yellow bird in his hands.

"No!" Gil said. "I'll call him The Awesome Gilbird! He'll be almost as awesome as me!" Elizaveta rolled her eyes at Gilbert, thinking how he had never changed. Still full of himself! Now, Roderich was another story.

Gilbird flew out of Gilbert's hands and landed on his head, ruffled down in the snowy locks and went to sleep. It was so adorable and yet so silly that Elizaveta could not help regaining her full size to tease the albino prince.

"Even boring your pets now, Prince Charmless?" she joked, Roderich spun round at the new voice in the room to see a pretty woman with long, brown hair stood behind them. She wore a green dress and had two green iridescent wings springing from her back, matching her eyes and revealing her heritage as a Fae. She did not look any older than him but he knew, with the Fae, that was deceptive.

"Oh Mein Gott!" Gilbert exclaimed. "It's Elizaveta The Krapwad. Keep your frying pan away from me!"

"Call me Krapwad again, Douche-noodle," she warned. "And you and my frying pan will get up close and personal!" She turned to Roderich. "Hello Roderich! I haven't seen you for a long time. You've really grown up!" For the first time in a long while, Roderich was interested.

"Have we met?" he asked, wondering how this pretty girl knew him. Gilbert snickered.

"Kesesese!" he laughed. "She's probably been watching you most of your life. Roddy, This is Elizaveta of the Héderváry Tribe from the Kingdom of Hungary. She's been helping King Romulus while The Three Fae are out of touch and she potters around here too, Heaven knows why!"

"Someone has to keep you in line," she retorted. "You're far too reckless and a bit slow in the head!" Roderich could not prevent the burst of laughter that escaped his mouth. This Fae will say what she thinks and not what she thinks people want to hear and he wanted that. He had had enough sucking up to last a lifetime since his matrimony plans became common knowledge.

"The Awesome Me has awesome head speed!"

"Don't you mean AWFUL!" Roderich was really enjoying this! As the Crowned Prince of Prussia, few people talked back to Gilbert. It was fun to see someone not afraid to go head to head with the Prussian heir.

"What about your head speed?" Gil smirked. "I heard from a certain Romanian Fae that, when you were a _tiny_ Fae, you thought you were a boy!" He sang the last part and it seemed he had crossed a line.

 _Clang!_

Gilbert hit the floor like a sack of potatoes as Elizaveta stood over him, welding a big frying pan. Somehow she had missed Gilbird completely and had not even disturbed the little bird.

"I'm going to kill Vladimir!" she growled.

"You realise you just hit the heir to the Prussian throne," Roderich pointed out. Elizaveta waved it off as unimportant.

"Hasn't done him any harm before," she replied. "Besides, he's a bonehead!"

Roderich wondered how many times Elizaveta had hit Gilbert and how it would explain Gilbert's occasional (and not so occasional) idiocy. Elizaveta sent her frying pan back to whether she had produced it from, stepped over Gilbert's prone form and walked over to the piano.

"I was really enjoying your music, Roderich," she said. "Would you play some more for me?"

"What about …..?" Roderich pointed to the unconscious albino.

"He wake up in a hour," she replied, dismissively. "And be as big an arrogant ass as he was before I hit him." Roderich thought she must have had a lot of practice at hitting Gilbert to know when he would wake up and thought he had better play, rather than get on the wrong side of her. He brought a chair for her to sit on and took his place before the piano, tinkling a few of the keys to loosen his fingers up again and launched into a symphony of musical delight for Elizaveta. Cute and talented! Elizaveta decided to pay a little more attention to Roderich.

Roderich was sneaking glances out of the corner of his eye at the pretty Hungarian Fae as she listened to the music he was playing. She was very pleasing to the eye and, so far, had not bored him for an instant but then, a frying pan welding Fae who hit crowned princes would hardly make you yawn but he was worried if she hit Grand Duke's sons as well.

Right on cue, after a hour, Gil woke up with an unawesomely, ringing headache and claimed that all that banging on the keys was making it worse and disappeared to slouch about in his chambers, leaving Roderich and Elizaveta alone to talk.

Roderich told her about his father, about his illness and how he wanted his son to marry before he died. Elizaveta wished she could help him but, while she could cure things like fevers and diseases, her magic had no affect on medical conditions, almost as if it was pre-ordained.

She told him about the fourteen year old god-daughter she was forbidden to see by her god-daughter's step-mother but she watched her any way in the guise of a mouse and was very unhappy at the way Katyusha was being treated by her step-family and she would find away to get her out of it one day. Right now, Elizaveta helped Katyusha when she could.

Roderich realised he had gone a whole hour without wishing to be elsewhere and wanting to be nowhere else. Elizaveta was not only interesting but also sweet, when not talking about Gilbert who seemed to be her trigger but Roderich wondered if she disliked him as much as she pretended or whether it was just one of those weird friendships where they were frienemies. One thing he knew was he wanted to see her again.

"Can you come back tomorrow?" he asked. He really wanted to spend more time with her if she was willing. Elizaveta seemed a little indecisive.

"I'll try!" she promised. "I can't guarantee it but I will try!" She was about to miniaturise when she had a thought. She went up to Roderich and gave him a peck on the cheek then became tiny and flew out of the window.

Roderich touched his cheek where she had kissed him and could not wait for tomorrow.

* * *

Roderich spent the next day on pins and needles, waiting for Elizaveta. He had cancelled all other appointments, claiming that he was waiting for someone coming. His father did not push him into meeting anyone, in case the person he was waiting for was someone Roderich had an interest in. Roderich had waited but Elizaveta never came and Roderich spent the rest of the day playing Chopin.

His father would not let Roderich waste another day and forced him to meet with Lady Luisa Maurer, daughter of Baron Maurer, a social-climber with eyes on a higher station than she currently occupied. She did have her eye on Prince Gilbert but the way he seemed to be escaping matrimonial traps, it was like trying to pin down a cloud so she decided it was easier to try for the rank of future Grand Duchess instead.

As they sat, sipping tea while Luisa droned on about anything and everything, most of the time not knowing what she was talking about, Roderich was hiding his extreme boredom. He had already suffered an hour of this but the woman showed no signs of leaving. Instead, she poured herself another cup and selected a pastry. Honestly, how much tea could this woman drink? Roderich felt the need to play his piano but to leave his guest would be impolite.

"Would you like to retire to the music room?" he asked. "I could play the piano for you!" Luisa turned her nose up slightly.

"I don't really care for the piano," she declared with a slight huff. "All that noise just gives me a headache." She was too absorbed in sipping her tea to see Roderich frowning at her, then she might have realised that she had said the wrong thing. She soon found out.

"That's a pity!" Roderich replied with an offended tone. "I play the piano all the time. I'm never happier than when I'm playing to an _appreciative_ audience." Luisa realised that she might have blown her chance. Not that she had much of one to begin with but she tried to back track.

"Oh, I'm sure I wouldn't mind if you played, my dear Roderich," she stammered, digging her grave even deeper with the endearment because Roderich was not her dear _anything!_

"I wouldn't want to force you to listen to anything you found so tiresome," he replied. "And it's at this time I practice so I shall take my leave of you! Please, finish your refreshments! I'll see that the servants see to your needs!" With that, he bowed and left as quickly as possibly with Luisa realising that there was no point in coming back.

* * *

Roderich went to the music room, relieved to be away from the woman. There was no way he could tolerate no appreciation for the piano. No talent for it, he could live with if the person still enjoyed listening to someone who did possess the ability but a dislike was more than he could bear. If only Elizaveta were here! She needed no encouragement to sit and listen.

Roderich sat before the piano and immediately launched into Chopin's Revolutionary Étude, revealing just how annoyed he was with the whole day, not realising that he was not alone.

"I see you've met the delightful Lady Luisa," a voice said and Roderich turned to see Prince Gilbert in the corner, playing with Gilbird.

"What are you doing in here?" Roderich asked. Gilbert usually only came in when he was there.

"I've been here ever since I heard that she came," Gilbert replied. "She's a predator to anyone with a title higher than hers and I was her target for a while but she's never set foot in a music room in her life so I figured this would be the safest place. She must have set her sights on you now but, if you're playing Chopin, I'm guessing she said something bad. What did she do? Insult your piano?"

"Not far off!" Roderich admitted. "If I married that woman, I would be getting earache every time I practiced. Not something I could live with!"

"Unawesome!" Gilbert agreed. "She doesn't like birds either. It would be her or Gilbird!"

"On the whole, I would choose Gilbird!" Roderich replied.

"And with that answer, you've gained a little bit of awesome!" Gilbert declared and Gilbird agreed with a chirp.

"Elizaveta would never want me to give up the piano," Roderich commented, wondering where she was and what kept her from coming yesterday. He could not be angry about it as she did say she might not be able to come.

"No," Gilbert agreed. "Elizaveta might be a krapwad sometimes but she'd never make anyone give up something they loved like that and she loves your playing. Not that I blame her, you're awesome at that!"

"You said the piano was hurting your head!"

"That had nothing to do with your playing! I had been hit by an unawesome frying pan, remember!" Roderich gave a laugh at that.

"She has an awesome swing on her," he replied, thinking about it. Gilbert saw the soft expression on Roderich's face.

"What's with that look?" he asked. Roderich blushed a little and, for Gilbert, the penny dropped.

"You like Elizaveta!" he exclaimed and Roderich went bright red.

" _You like Elizaveta!_ " Gil sang, childishly. " _Roderich and Elizaveta, sitting in a tree! K. I. S. S. I. N. ...!" Clang!_

Gilbert once again hit the ground and Roderich looked up to see Elizaveta standing there with the frying pan in her hands and an annoyed expression on her face. Because Katyusha had been particularly picked on by her step-family, Elizaveta felt she could not leave her and so she came today instead, just in time to hear Gilbert's childish singing.

"Idiot never learns!" she groused. Roderich seriously worried about Gil's brain, the amount of blows it kept taking.

"Well, do you?" Elizaveta asked. Roderich turned toward her.

"Do I what?"

"Like me!" Elizaveta stepped closer to Roderich and he went bright red again. She smiled.

"I'll make it easier for you," she said. "I like you!" And she gave him a soft kiss on the lips. When she pulled away, he moved forward and gave her a firmer kiss. Elizaveta wrapped her arms around Roderich's neck and hugged him tight as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

It was early days but Roderich had the feeling he had found The One!

* * *

They were married within the year and Roderich's father lived long enough to see his son's wedding. And, as predicted, his married life was not boring as a double life as a mouse, watching over his wife's god-daughter, just waiting for the moment to save her from her horrible step-family, would be anything but. Who knew that his Prussian best friend would be the key to that!

 **I chose Chopin's Revolutionary Étude because it sounds like the kind of music Roderich might play when he's upset! I'm looking for ideas for Hetalia Tales 4:5 because I'm drawing a blank right now. I need it to take place after Hetalia Tales 4 : Beauty and The Beast or be connected somehow. All suggestions welcome and credit will be given so till next time,**

 **Hasta la Pasta!**


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